Continuing the Iraq Discussion or Why the MSM is Our Own Worst Enemy

A few days ago I wrote a short essay An Iraq Lesson for the Reality Based Chuckleheads In which I pointed out that with the Sunni insurgents mainly attacking Iraqi's these days, the effect of their shift in strategy has the cause of shift in the recruitment effects due to the violence from the al-Qaeda/anti-US cause to a pro-US, pro-Free Iraq one. This runs counter to the leftist axiom which holds that any deaths in Iraq just help the enemy.

A short discussion began in the comments, with one Mr Conor (web site here). Mr Conor, apparently conceded my point, but added that:

The west (USA and Europe) has been messing in the affairs of Arab nations since the destruction of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. The Arabs take particular offense to the fact that the west has been messing in the affairs of Arab nations (for its benefit) since the end of World War I. As long as we continue to mess with the affairs of Arab nations (for our benefit, real or perceived), there will be significant animosity towards the US, especially because creating said animosity is a useful tool for those in power.

My reply:

However, I think that even if we left them "completely alone" the animosity would not abate. As you point out, it is a useful tool for those in power. That being the case, I fail to see how actively engendering support amongst the Iraqi's today by assisting them against the relatively small number of active Sunni insurgents, who are now killing Iraqi's in the main, will have any measurable effect. In fact, if the Iraqi's are successful (with our assistance) in creating a free democratic open society, don't you think that hatred will be more difficult to sustain, not less?

He countered:

The problem is, many do not see at as a free and democratic open society. They see it as simply the US trying to put in a pro-western government, a repeat of the incident with the Shah of Iran. The US has a long history of toying around with the Middle East for its own benefit and they see nothing to indicate that this is a switch from that and a purely benevolent act.

Which of course, is why we are not trying to repeat the incident with the Shah and "toy" around or put in a puppet government. This is why it is important that we get it "right". That we indeed do install a free democratic unconstrained democracy in Iraq. It is crucial that we do so, and the historical trends in the Middle East will finally be reversed from a repressive poor backward pocket of the Earth, cursed with a glut of oil, into a place fitting to be called the "cradle of civilization".

And this leads to the main point of this little essay, one would think this line of logic would be easily followed by the "reality based" MSM community without assistance. If that were the case, why the f**k do they act as a propaganda arm for al-Qaeda? Why aren't they out there scouring the countryside and trumpeting every successful sign of a germinating democratic movement in Iraq (and Afghanistan for that matter). Why are they striving to cast our military in as bad a light as possible? Why do they give every impression of hoping we fail? Why are the left leaning bloggers not calling them on it? Why do they give them a pass?

I can understand having been "against the war". But the cat is out of the bag. It's too late to remain "against the war" and be for the coalition. For the war has not only begun, but it is over and we must do the reconstruction right. If you are against the reconstruction, well, I say you are for the terrorists. And if you are American and for the terrorists you urgently need a sanity check because either your elevator is broken or it doesn't get off the ground floor.